Put the rules of awareness to work for you

There are surely many things that have led to the complex structures of modern civilization, but I imagine that chief among them is something very simple, so simple in fact that we don’t even give it a second thought: awareness. Observation. Good old-fashioned knowing stuff.

After all, awareness is the first step of everything, right? Decisions cannot be made unless we are aware that one is necessary, and plans cannot be carried out without awareness of countless factors. This is great news because this very simple, almost automatic, response is one of the cornerstones of healthy living, and it is so easy.

I say that it is “almost automatic,” because sometimes it’s not. Sometimes we miss things and have to retrace our steps in order to notice them properly. The example that I will use today is how aware we are of our eating habits, especially during the holidays when, well let’s just say things can get a little hazy in the nutrition department.

One of the questions I hear most often when folks find out I am a wellness coach is, “are you going to make me write down everything I eat?” The answer is pretty much the same as almost any question related to health: it depends. If you have a goal related to your weight, then it is most likely to your advantage to know about the things that affect your weight.

In our world, food intake is a direct contributor to weight, so it would be a good idea to collect information about the thing that makes the most impact and see whether we can manipulate it. So, while I am not going to make you write down everything you eat, I will certainly suggest it and hope that you choose to do so because it’s the fastest route to change.

But, I have some rules. There are three rules, in fact, that I absolutely insist are essential to success when logging food. Don’t worry, they’re easy, and they come from a place of love.

• First, if you bite it, you write it. This rule is really, “if you swallow it, you write it,” but that doesn’t rhyme. The goal of this rule is to build awareness of the times when the little things add up. Once we commit to acknowledging our actions and recording them, they become a lot harder to ignore. But it’s important to remember that this rule is not intended to be a shaming finger wag pointing out all of the ways you are failing. Rather, it is an opportunity to step back and get the full picture of the landscape you’re working in. The second rule makes this a little easier.

• The second rule is to not feel bad about anything you wrote down. It is just what it is. Tracking food is not an assessment, it is just data collection. You can evaluate later what you should do once you have all of the data. For now, the goal is just to collect it, not analyze it. So, bite it and write it with reckless abandon; throw care to the wind and just be your authentic self all over that food log. You’re the only one looking at it anyway so who cares what it says? You had M&Ms for lunch? It is what it is. Write it down. Let it go.

• The third rule is a bit more of a challenge. This rule is like the kid in the back of the class who asks about homework at the end of the day. In this step, I want you to look back at what you wrote down and add a note: why you ate it. Again, this is not an evaluation or an assessment; it is just collecting more of the information you need to make a well-informed plan. Be honest about the reason why you ate something. Was it because your stomach was hungry? Was it because you were bored, or it was time to eat, or because someone brought it to you? Really step back and think about this part, and when that voice in the back of your head tells you the answer, believe it.

That’s it. That’s all you have to do. Just eat, write down what ate without evaluating it, and understand why you did it. That is the whole thing.

The magic happens on its own. Research shows us that awareness leads to behavior change in such a powerful way that we almost don’t have to do anything other than let it be. If change is a goal in your life, then I dare you to keep a journal of your habits — a true, honest, vulnerable, non-judgmental account of what happened — and not see a clear path develop before you. Whether you walk on that path is up to you, but science shows that you are very likely to do it once it is made so apparent. Trust that.

Heather Fuselier is a certified wellness coach and personal trainer. Learn more at Wellness WithoutPity.com.